Moving into the 2022 NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series season, Kalitta Motorsports is once again expanding its marketing and business-to-business (B2B) relationship with Dallas-based CMR Construction & Roofing. Over the last seven months of 2021, the program grew from a major associate relationship to ultimately CMR sponsoring the Kalitta Motorsports B2B Summit in advance of the Charlotte NHRA national event in September and Shawn Langdon running a fully branded CMR Construction & Roofing Top Fuel dragster at the Las Vegas NHRA National event in October. This season, CMR will be the primary sponsor on Langdon’s 11,000 horsepower Top Fuel dragster for six races beginning with the historic Gatornationals and including full branding at the Charlotte Four-Wide Nationals, Bristol, Sonoma, Brainerd, and during the Stampede of Speed NHRA National event in Dallas. Additionally, CMR will continue to be the presenting sponsor at each of the Kalitta Motorsports B2B Summits.

“We got off to a great start in 2021 with CMR Construction & Roofing, and the momentum just kept building,” said Chad Head, Kalitta Motorsports General Manager. “This program is a textbook example of how our business-to-business model shows immediate returns for our sponsors. We, CMR, and especially its CEO, Steve Soule, took advantage of every opportunity to network with our sponsors and NHRA partners over the back half of the season. They saw results and are growing their program with us.”

She sealed the deal on Friday.

Krista Baldwin, the third-generation drag racer, daughter of the late Bobby Baldwin, and granddaughter of the ageless wonder Chris Karamesines, captured her first fan-vote series championship by winning the Mickey Thompson VRHRA Golden Gate Nationals Top Fuel event title, beating Shawn Langdon in the final round. 

The victory was No. 7 seven in eight races contested thus far in the 2021 - 2022 season. 

"Being the champion is awesome," Baldwin said. "Definitely wish it would happen in real life. I got to thank all my fans for voting for me. Shoot, that's a testament of them liking the underdog winning."

FTI Performance announces their Jr. Dragster participant program, the FTI Farm Team. This year a total of 29 drivers from all across the United States will be part of this ambassador program. With its inception in 2016, the Farm Team has grown to one of the prestigious groups to be associated with.

Jim Dunn Racing and its Mooneyes Funny Car headlined Moon Equipment Co’s inaugural New Year’s Party on January 22.  Team owner, Jim Dunn, and driver, Jim Campbell, signed autographs for those who stopped to get a look at the latest Mooneyes Funny Car design.  The sold out New Year’s Party was a success and provided a great way to kick the season off for the team.

The crew not only had to have the Funny Car ready for the New Year’s Party, but also the upcoming Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals at Pomona in less than a month.  Coming off a Top 10 finish in the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing series in 2021, the team has expectations to continue improving.  Jim Dunn Racing also has some additional sponsor announcements planned before and after the Pomona race to look forward to early in the year.

Although reported to be closing after the 2022 NHRA Spring Nationals in April, it was recently confirmed that Houston Raceway Park will remain open beyond the end of the season and well into the future. Drag racing enthusiasts and aspiring competitors won’t want to miss the opportunity to race at the historic facility when Frank Hawley’s Drag Racing School visits on April 4-6, 2022.

Located just outside of Houston in Baytown, Texas, Houston Raceway Park will host the School’s 2-day licensing classes in Super Comp or Super Gas on April 4-5 as well as its Dragster Adventure program on April 6, and no previous racing experience is needed to participate in any of the programs.

The two-day license course keeps a steady pace with plenty of action. Beginners are taught basic techniques and procedures for drag racing, while experienced racers focus on refining the mental aspect of the sport and honing their skills to bolster their win rates. 

It's race day at Freemont Dragway. Qualifying is complete, now it's time to begin the process of eliminating down for a winner of the Mickey Thompson Tires Golden Gate Nationals, Race 8 of 9 in the Virtual Reality Hot Rod Association. 

It's all fun in fantasy land to get away from the troubles of what is happening in the real world. 

For those new to this fantasy world, this is how it works. The race with the most votes advances to the next round. We had a day of voting to seed the eight-car fields. 

First-round ends tonight at 6 PM EST. 

One look at Rahn Tobler doesn't exactly conjure up images of Michael Corleone, the fictional character played by Al Pacino in the Godfather movies.

Maybe not, but recently he did sound like him.

"Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!"

Tobler's retirement didn't even last an entire year, after announcing his departure from Don Schumacher last January. He's got no problem declaring himself a "fly-in" guy to work alongside tuner Joe Barlam as they prepare to guide past Rookie of the Year driver Austin Prock towards an NHRA Camping World Top Fuel championship.

John Force Racing has announced the return of Montana Brand and Rocky Mountain Twist as a primary sponsor for Austin Prock’s Top Fuel dragster in the 2022 NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series season. Owned by Frank Tiegs, also the owner of Flav-R-Pac Fruits and Vegetables who share primary sponsorship of Brittany Force’s dragster, Montana Brand is manufactured by Rocky Mountain Twist in its Ronan, Montana location and was founded in 2001.

Montana Brand and Rocky Mountain Twist first joined the John Force Racing family in 2019 as Prock’s primary sponsor when he won his first career NHRA national event at the Northwest Nationals in Seattle. Prock would finish the season as the NHRA’s Rookie of the Year winning the Auto Club Road to the Future Award. In 2022, the Montana Brand Rocky Mountain Twist dragster will be led by co-crew chiefs Joe Barlam and Rahn Tobler.

Jianna Salinas is recovering from an accident while testing at Bradenton Motorsports Park on Tuesday at the track located in Bradenton, Fla. There were no significant injuries reported. Still, a statement from the team confirmed she was returning to California to recover. 

Multi-time NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle champion Matt Smith, who manages the Salinas Family's Scrapper Racing Pro Stock Bike team, said the cause of the crash came from parts failure, which could not have been diagnosed ahead of time.